Hem Chandra Goswami

Hem Chandra Goswami is a mask maker of the sattra tradition of Assam, known in India and abroad for his skill and inventiveness. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of art, from Assam ^[1].

Growing up in a sattra

Goswami was born on 1 March 1958 and studied arts and crafts at the Arts and Crafts Society of Guwahati ^[2]. He grew up around a sattra, one of the Vaishnava monasteries of Assam, where mask making is part of daily life ^[2]. The craft of making masks from split bamboo is credited to the saint Srimanta Sankardeva, and the masks are used in bhaona plays and sattriya dances performed in the monasteries and village prayer halls ^[2].

From Majuli to London

His masks are on display at Dibrugarh and Tezpur universities, Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra in Guwahati, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi, the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya in Bhopal and in museums in several countries, including the United States, Britain, France and Germany ^[2].

In 2015 a curator from the British Museum came to Majuli to ask him about a mask shown on the Vrindavani Vastra, a historic Assamese textile in the museum’s collection ^[2]. He stayed five days and took back five of Goswami’s masks, which were shown in the exhibition Krishna in the Garden of Assam from January to August 2016 ^[2].

Teaching

He has lectured on bamboo masks at universities and cultural centres, including Visva-Bharati, and set up an institute at Chamaguri Satra in Majuli to teach the craft to young people ^[2]. He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2019 and an honorary doctorate from Gauhati University in 2017 ^[2].